Tag: landslide

  • March 18, 2024

    March 18, 2024

    ELECTIONS An emergency order merging the EP and Romania’s local elections on June 9 is discussed as of today in the Romanian Senate committees. The ruling coalition says the decision was made in order to motivate citizens to vote, but the opposition criticised the move. Save Romania Union, the People’s Movement Party and the Force of the Right party argue that the draft order changes essential elements in the elections only a couple of months before the vote date, which is against constitutional and international principles. AUR party, also in opposition, urged the Ombudsman office to challenge the new legislation before the Constitutional Court. Under the document, candidates may run in the local elections on behalf of a different party, provided that they notify the candidacy 45 days before election date.

    AMMUNITION PM Marcel Ciolacu Sunday night announced that Romania would have the most advanced ammunition powder production facility in Europe, in which the EU will also be a partner. Romania is set to receive EUR 47 mln in EU funding for this project implemented by the Romanian state-owned company Romarm jointly with Germany.

    STRIKE In Romania, local administration staff are on two-hour daily warning strike until the end of the week. Protests were also held one month ago, but were suspended after civil servants were promised solutions for their salary problems. Meanwhile, the leaders of the “Solidaritatea Sanitară” Trade Union Federation are meeting today for talks on a prospective all-out strike. Healthcare employees have been consulted online on the issue. Unionists say the 20% pay raise recently approved by the government is insufficient. Unionists in the trade sector, affiliated to the Cartel Alfa bloc, are also picketing the labour ministry headquarters today, to demand decent wages and working conditions.

    RUSSIA Vladimir Putin won the highest election score in the history of post-communist Russia, and secured another 6 years as president of the country he has been leading since late 1999. At midnight he thanked his supporters at his campaign office, where he gave a one-hour press conference saying his main challenge in this new term would be resolving tasks related with what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russia’s elections were criticised around the world. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was obvious for anybody that “there is no evil Vladimir Putin will not commit” in order to extend his rule. In turn, the White House claimed the elections in Russia were neither free nor fair, given Putin’s track record of imprisoning his political opponents. Poland said the vote in Russia, held under extreme pressure, made it impossible for the election to be free and democratic. News agencies mention that under Vladimir Putin Russia was involved in several brutal wars, in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine, and the democratic system introduced after the fall of the Soviet Union has been replaced by a regime in which independent media have been forced out of the country and the opposition has been largely eliminated, with many of Putin’s critics assassinated, arrested or forced to leave the country.

    MISSILE The US today condemned the launch of a ballistic missile by North Korea into the Sea of Japan, during the US state secretary Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea. The presumed missile launch is the second of this kind by Pyongyang this year, after a hypersonic missile fired on January 14. Antony Blinken reached South Korea on Sunday afternoon, to take part in the 3rd Summit for Democracy conference, an initiative of the US president Joe Biden hosted by Seoul until Wednesday. (AMP)

  • Flooding makes victims in Romania

    Flooding makes victims in Romania

    In Romania, the flash floods caused by the heavy rains of the past few days have killed people and caused substantial damage. Most rivers in the country are subject to code orange and yellow alerts until Friday, and the situation is even worse in the north, where hydrologists have a code red alert in place until Thursday at noon for the river Tisa, in Maramureş County, and Prut, in Botoşani County. In these areas in particular, the risk of flash floods remains high.



    Until Thursday, weather experts have also issued a code yellow alert for temporarily severe unstable weather for all mountain areas, for the north, centre, east and parts of the south regions of the country.



    Flash floods have already been reported in three-quarters of the counties, and emergency teams have been deployed to pump water out of households. Strong winds have brought down trees and electricity poles, also requiring emergency intervention.



    Tens of people were evacuated and temporarily housed in buildings offered by local authorities or relatives, some of them as a precaution and others because their own houses were simply washed away.



    Households, gardens, farm land and streets have been flooded, and the situation could have been even more dramatic, had people not been warned by the RoAlert system. This is how some of the victims describe what happened:



    “The water was knee deep. We were flooded from both sides because of the brook, water came down both from the gardens, and from the street side.



    “Our animals are still in the water—the pigs, the horse, the cow. This is not the first time weve been flooded, but its not been that bad in a long time. Its a disaster.



    “This keeps happening for several years now. We need a dam. There is so much work and so much spending every time this happens, and it happens a lot. Water is half the height of the house walls. As for the garden, you dont want to know. But we are especially upset about the house—the furniture, the flooring, everything.



    In some towns as well, basements have also been flooded, and in the north of Bucharest the sewage system was temporarily unable to handle the situation. Radio Romania correspondents from around the country report collapsed roads, traffic jams, landslides or disrupted railway transport.



    In the west of the country, the most affected area is Alba County, where heavy rains triggered landslides. Hundreds of households and industrial units went under water, and scores of people were left without homes. Bridges were also damaged, and so were national and county roads and streets. A railway bridge was also damaged by mudslides, causing the traffic to be suspended. Tens of military firefighters, gendarmes and police, as well as Volunteer Emergency Services personnel were deployed to address the problem.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)